Facebook Makes It Easier for Anyone to Message You

Out with the old, in with the new! Message Requests for Messenger will replace Facebook’s “Other” folder, which appeared only on the Web-based version and tended to be a mostly ignored, catch-all space for spam messages from strangers rather than for greetings from long-lost friends. “Several commentators and researchers have noted that imposing a financial cost on the sender may be the most effective way to discourage unwanted messages and facilitate delivery of messages that are relevant and useful.” She said often members don’t see admin messages because they fall into the “other” folder. “Everything else will now be a message request, minus spam attempts that we will continue to ruthlessly combat”.As Facebook prepares to phase out its Other inbox in the coming days, reaction to the move has been mixed at best, with concerns about privacy leading the critical comments. Of course, you would have to wait a little for the other person to accept your chat request. “It means our messages won’t be missed and people can’t claim that they haven’t been spoken to”, she added.

You may want a better search engine in order to find a distant relative or to get in touch with a friend, but then again, you would want tochoose the people from whom you receive messages. Oftentimes, these messages turn out to be spam, while sometimes it’s a legitimate message from, say, an old high school friend, or someone inquiring about your business.

This mailbox is available only through a desktop and cannot be viewed on a phone, making this inbox difficult to get to, leading to a lot of missed messages. Previously, if you received a message from someone who wasn’t your friend or a mutual friend, it was filed away in the “Other” inbox, which was only accessible from the Web. Facebook software engineer Louis Boval said: “With Messenger, we’ve been focused on creating the best messaging experience possible by giving people a fun and easy way to connect and express themselves with friends and contacts”. “We truly want to make Messenger the place where you can find and privately connect with anyone you need to reach, but only be reached by the people you want to communicate with”, David Marcus, the Vice President of Messaging Products at Facebook wrote of the new feature. The ‘other’ mailbox is reserved for messages from people who are not friends with you on Facebook — this means that strangers messaging you, spam, or group messages including people you’re not friends with will automatically be directed to this inbox. Some have cited the possibility of many more spam messages, as well as more opportunities for users to harass people they don’t like, and aren’t friends with on the site. “This means women will get creepy messages directly in their inbox, warned one user. “They used to be able to ignore them as they went to the others folder.” Still, the Other inbox will be replaced by “requests” – that means Facebook will send you a notification telling you that a stranger has sent you a message, and you can choose to accept or reject those requests.

However, Facebook has decided to change all of this by instead merging the inboxes, instead opting for these messages to turn into ‘requests’ which can then be accepted or denied. Messages will arrive automatically, even if the sender doesn’t have a Facebook account, but will be stored as a contact as long as users have the app/program synced up. This shift will make it easier for strangers to get into contact with people over things like lost possessions, which can easily go by undetected with the current inbox system.

We have to admit that, over time, that little junk folder named “other” has been filled with different things that we want to forget: requests from persons you don’t even know, spam messages that advertise certain “products“ and love letters from you friendly neighborhood stalker.